Reports in Configuration Manager 2007 can be exported by using the Export Object Wizard, which creates a Managed Object Format (MOF) file that can then be imported at another site. This can be useful when importing reports that have been downloaded from the Internet or created by someone else in the organization. To export a report, you must have Read permission for the Reports security object class or instance. To import a report, you must have Create permission for the Reports security object class or instance.
Exporting Reports
Use the Export Object Wizard to export one or more report objects. When you export report objects, Configuration Manager writes the object definitions to a MOF file. Only the definitions for the report object are exported, not any report data. For example, if you export a report that contains links to the Status Message page, you export only the status message IDs and not the actual data that is contained in the individual status messages.
You can use the Export Object Wizard to export objects from only one object class (reports, collections, or queries) at a time. MOF files that are created by using the Export Object Wizard contain only one object class. For more information, see How to Export a Report.
When you export reports that have links, links to URLs are maintained; however, links to other targets are not maintained. For example, if you export a report that links to another report, that link is not maintained and it must be manually reconfigured after the report object is imported.
The report ID is unique for each report. When you export a report, the report ID is not written to the MOF file. This prevents you from accidentally replacing an existing report by importing a MOF file in which a report ID for an imported report matches that of an existing report. When you import reports, Configuration Manager 2007 assigns each imported report a new report ID.
More than one report can have the same name, as long as each report is in a different report category. When you export reports, the report categories are written to the MOF file; however, the report categories do not appear in the Export Object Wizard. The unique report ID for each report does appear in the Export Object Wizard. To ensure that you are exporting the reports that you want, verify that the report ID of each report in the Export Object Wizard matches the report ID of each report as it appears in the results pane of the Configuration Manager console.
Importing Reports
Use the Import Object Wizard to import the report objects contained in a MOF file. A MOF file is a text file that you can use to import report object instances into your Configuration Manager database. You can also use MOF files to import report object instances into another database. You can also use the Import Object Wizard to import user-created MOF files that contain objects from multiple object classes. The MOF file must be in Unicode format or Import Object Wizard will fail to import the MOF file. All MOF files that are exported by the Export Object Wizard are in Unicode file format.
You must have Create permission for all object classes in a MOF file. Any objects for which you do not have permission are not imported. For example, if you import a MOF file that contains report and collection objects but you have Create permission only for the Reports object class, the collection objects are not imported. When you import and run a report that was created at another Configuration Manager site, the report runs against your site database, not the original site database.
When you are importing reports, the properties of the existing report are overwritten without warning if you import a report with the same name and category as a report already in the database. To avoid this, open the MOF file by using a text editor, such as Notepad, and review the object names against the names of existing objects in the Configuration Manager site database before importing the file.